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PRINCIPLES REGARDING PHYSICIANS AND THE ARMED FORCES

The American Medical Student Association:

1.             OPPOSES national registration or conscription for military purposes;

2.             ENDORSES the concept that all medical personnel of the uniformed military services are, and should remain, noncombatants as defined by the Geneva Convention;

3.             BELIEVES that in the event of physician conscription, it should be without regard to sex; and the period of draft eligibility should be in the premedical years and immediately after completion of the Postgraduate Year 1 for a sum total of years not to exceed that of the general nonphysician population;

4.             BELIEVES that if, and only if, obligatory conscription becomes a governmental policy, that conscription be universally applied without regard to sex, race, income, or sexual orientation and gender identity and allows for the individual’s participation in choosing a program that responds to the nation’s need;

5.             With regard to the Health Professions Scholarship Programs: (2008)

a.             FAVORS Health Professions Scholarship Programs to branches of the United States Uniformed Services that do not discriminate based on race, gender, economic status, or sexual orientation and gender identity. (2004)

b.             SUPPORTS individual AMSA members who are able to participate in all scholarship programs within the Uniformed Services, regardless of the scholarships own policies. (2004)

6.             URGES the repeal of all Department of Defense directives and regulations requiring the discharge or prosecution of members of the armed forces for reasons of sexual orientation and gender identity; (1985)

7.             BELIEVES that the ability of a patient to fully disclose information regarding her/his sexual orientation and gender identity is crucial to a successful physician-patient relationship and to the provision of quality healthcare and OPPOSES the practice of military physicians reporting the sexual orientation of their patients to commanding officers or to anyone else when it is not necessary for health purposes; (2008)

8.             OPPOSES admissions discrimination by the Uniformed University of the Health Sciences and hiring discrimination by all military residency programs on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. (1985)

9.             URGES the Director of Advertising for The New Physician to search for other sources of advertising income other than the Armed Forces of the United States , until such time that the Armed Forces are in compliance with the stated principles of American Medical Student Association with regard to discrimination.

10.           SUPPORTS the efforts of groups within AMSA to increase awareness of discrimination in the military through fall workshops, convention planning and The New Physician. (2008)